


Unseen Snippets - Fictober 2018

by Lilafly



Category: Unseen Series
Genre: Fictober 2018, One-Shots, Original Character(s), Supernatural Elements, celtic mythology - Freeform, not a continuous story
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-01
Updated: 2018-10-06
Packaged: 2019-07-23 12:55:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 8,759
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16159394
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lilafly/pseuds/Lilafly
Summary: A collection of my drabbles for Fictober. They are all about my own original story "Unseen" and therefore also about my original characters. I treat it as some sort of character study and writing practice. :3





	1. Can you feel this?

**Author's Note:**

> Sunny's point of view.

“Can you feel this?” Phoenix asked but we both knew the question was rhetorical. Of course, I didn’t feel anything. After all, I was the human among fae and it sounded as weird as it actually was. To live in a world populated by humans and still somehow be a minority in my choice group of company had tilted my world view recently. Up until this summer it had just been Hayden and me and in that scenario, my brother had been the odd one out.

“No,” I still replied grumpily and threw the black-haired boy a glare. He still was not to be trusted in my book and I would not start with it now. Dragging me out of the house and into the woods in the middle of the day had me in a sour mood anyway and his stupid secretive ways did not help either.

“There is something in this area. Like a place of power,” he explained, but that did not surprise me in the slightest.

“If you’re talking about the hill that might be a _sídhe_ , then that is about half a kilometre that way,” I said and pointed straight ahead. His look, as if I had just solved the mystery of the universe, was extremely amusing and I could not hold back a small victorious smirk. He probably had not thought that I could contribute anything to this surprise adventure of his besides a knowledge of the lay of the land.

“What? Do you think I just locked myself in my room in the last three years? I may have spent a lot of time doing research, but anyone would get crazy without going outside _at all_. Besides, I already went to that hill plenty of times without anything happening. A couple more times didn’t hurt.”

“Wait, you went there on your own!?”

“With Hayden,” I replied with a roll of my eyes. Did he think I was stupid? Probably, judging by the way he was treating me.

“Now, would you kindly explain to me why we are out in the woods in the first place? You want to find a place of power? Congrats, the _sídhe_ is that way. Have fun! I don’t see what you need me here for. And you better not gonna say that I’m bait or something like that!”

“I…err… _ah por todos los dioses_ _…_ ” The Spanish stammering did not help, especially since I did not understand a single word of it. It sounded more like a helpless exclamation than anything though, so I probably was not meant to understand it anyway.

“Are we playing the ‘let’s speak the language you don’t understand’ game now? Schön, unfair spielen kann ich auch.”

I swore to god, if he was not going to tell me what exactly we were out here for, I would stab him in the calf with the iron knife I kept at my belt—in case of fae emergencies.  

“Well, I could say that I need you for directions, but that would be a lie—even though you’re being surprisingly helpful.”

I crossed my arms and threw him my best scowl, getting impatient. He might think that he was dragging me away from _a_ _boring life_ —his words, not mine—but I honestly had things to do. Things that had a deadline and which I wanted to have finished.

“Can I be helpful at another time or preferably never again? This might be hard for you to comprehend, but I have things to do. Things that have nothing to do with _sídhes_ or small dragons that aren’t actually dragons and that have a deadline. So, if that was all, then I’ll be on my way now.”

“Wait! I…uhm…”

Seeing him squirm and fight for words was probably going into my records of my favourite moments of this year. After all, this was the same boy that had broken into my room through the balcony door last Friday and threatened to kill my brother with an honest to god _sword_.

“Listen, I…don’t know how to handle this, okay? I have people involved in this, but the only connection they have to the fae is me, so I can manage to keep them out of it as much as possible. You though—”

“I have Hayden as a connection and not you, so I’m the first human person you meet that you don’t have a control over. Get used to it.”

“That’s not what I meant. I mean, it is, but what I was actually trying to say is that if I can’t keep you from doing reckless things anyway, I can at least do them with you and keep you safe.”

His blush would have been amusing—reminder: this was _still_ the same sword wielding lunatic that broke into my room—if it wouldn’t be for the fact that he was looking at me like a kicked puppy. Also, his blush was contagious. Curse him more than he already was!

“Oh, okay then,” I replied little intelligently. A moment of awkward silence passed and then I found my composure again.

“Good to know. I’m not up for reckless adventures today though. If I ever feel like risking my life again, I will be sure to give you a call so you can kill everything in sight.” My view travelled to the swords on his back and I asked myself not for the first time how in hell he could walk around with those in public and not get weird looks. Then again, he could probably just use a glamour and not be noticed by anyone at all. I just had the foresight to wear a necklace of dried rowan berries and wear my socks inside out.

“I did not really think this through, did I?” he said and blushed again. This time it was funny because he was embarrassed in the socially awkward way that was way too familiar to me.

“Nope, you certainly did not. A word of advice: Don’t randomly kidnap girls and drag them into the woods without further explanation. It’s as shady as it sounds.” Now he was blushing for real.

“I didn’t mean to…I wasn’t…this is not what—”

I snorted at his obvious distress.

“I’m just teasing you.”

He pouted and by the gods, why did he have to look so _cute_ while doing that?! Faeries should not be allowed to look cute, especially not boys that were cursed to be fae. How dare he…


	2. People like you have no imagination

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lotta's point of view

“Hey Lotta, I just read the new chapter this morning!” Came the enthusiastic greeting from all the way down the hall as the small brunette steadily got closer. How she managed to ram her way through the crowd was beyond me.

“Really!?” I grinned giddy and took out my phone to see if she left a comment. “I wasn’t really sure about this one because you know how people are about original characters in fanfictions.”

“Nonsense! Sylvia is a _great_ character!”

“By the way, I still don’t approve,” came Sunny’s voice from behind me and I snorted.

“You lost the bet fair and square.”

“Attends, quoi?” Maddy asked, clearly confused. “Which bet and what did Sunny lose?”

The blonde in question sighed. “Lotta bet that I would not be able to finish that one drawing before midnight and I didn’t, so she now uses my name for her character in her fanfiction.”

“Your name is Sylvia? I didn’t know that!” As always, Maddy seemed very excited about that fact.

“Sylvie, but it’s close enough to bug me.”

“Why? This is an _honour_! Lotta’s fanfiction is amazing and I love reading it!” Maddy gushed and I could feel myself swell up with pride.

“Then wait what is going to happen in the next two chapters,” Sunny said. I hit her arm.

“Shush, no spoilers!”

“No spoilers about what?” Someone asked from behind us and I turned around to see Rylon, closely followed by Drako who seemed to do his best to avoid eye contact with Sunny.

“My fanfiction. Sunny is my beta reader but she’s not allowed to spoil anything,” I explained and as predicted got an elbow in my side.

“Lotta, you weren’t supposed to tell that to people!” Sunny hissed.

“What’s the shame in helping me achieve perfection? It’s not like I told them I commissioned you to draw art for it,” I said with a knowing grin which earned me a murderous glare.

“You’re going to draw fanart?” Maddy said, extremely enthusiastic and I was happy that at least one person here appreciated my story enough to gush about it. “Which scenes? And how many will you draw? I can commission you for more if you want! How much is a piece? A hundred bucks? Two hundred? I can also pay more, or even better, I pay for a whole comic page!”

“What is the story about?” Rylon meanwhile asked and seemed at least mildly interested.

“It’s an alternative universe story about the characters from Card Captor Sakura where they land in a medieval setting with magic involved.”

“It’s a super cool story!” Maddy enthusiastically added. “In the last chapter, they had to get through an enchanted forest and there was a—”

“No spoilers, Maddy!” I said before she could get ahead of herself, even though I was _dying_ to know what she thought about it. I had to scrap most of the chapter because Sunny, for some reason, had heavily disagreed with picturing faeries as little people with dragonfly wings. She had ranted for a whole hour about how the image of faeries had been ruined by the media and how they were wicked creatures originally, same as unicorns and basically everything that was nice and cute now. Thanks to her, I had to bump the story up to a mature rating, but it had also gotten much better through it.

“Just the kelpie-thing, please! I loved how you described it!”

“Kelpie?” It was the first word Drako had said in this entire conversation and I was delighted to see that he seemed interested too. For some reason he was looking at Sunny though, who just gave him an arched eyebrow in return before he looked at me again.

“Yeah, it’s a water horse that disguises as a beautiful maiden and when you touch her, she shapeshifts back into her real form and drags you under the water to drown and eat you.”

Rylon looked at me as if I had grown a second head.

“Wait, that does not even make sense. Horses can’t be carnivorous; their whole anatomy is not meant for hunts or devouring meat.”

 Alright, maybe it was a sceptic.

“People like you have no imagination. So sad,” I said and sympathetically patted his shoulder.

“How did you even get the idea for something like that?” Drako asked and again threw a glance at Sunny. Weird, did he already know the answer?

“Well, Su—”

“Celtic Mythology,” Maddy surprisingly interrupted me and everyone went to stare at her. “It’s a beast from Celtic Mythology,” she clarified with a shrug.

“Wow, you know about Celtic Mythology too? Sunny, you and I really have to meet up sometime and brainstorm!”

Maddy seemed excited about that. “Can I become a beta reader like Sunny too? Please? I mean, I’m not perfect in English, but I can help you with the story structure and things like that if you want.”

“Expect spoilers though!” I warned, absolutely delighted about having gained a person enthusiastic enough to help me with my story. All the while, I did not miss Sunny looking less than thrilled about the whole idea. On the opposite, she seemed a little…insecure? That was odd. Sunny did not _do_ “insecure”, especially not in public. Something was off here, I just couldn’t figure out what it was.


	3. How can I trust you?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sunny's point of view

I had this feeling as if something was out of place but I could not remember what it was. Not something small as a missing picture on the wall, but this nagging feeling you get when you go on vacation and think for sure you have forgotten something. It was the same, just worse. There was something crucial in my life that I should not have forgotten but ultimately have. No matter how hard I tried to remember what it was, the answer always slipped through my fingers.

The specific answer that was.

There were small clues I had with which I could piece a rough picture together. The biggest of the clues was my iron dagger that had been unsheathed and which I had found lying on my bedside table while it usually would be under my pillow and very definitely not outside its sheath. That, coupled with the other few curiosities—my inexplicably eaten dinner which I had not touched, a print of a foreign shoe in our garden, a scratch on the wooden surface of my bedside table—led me to believe that what I had forgotten, was very probably something supernatural. It would explain why I had forgotten it in the first place, which made me just so much more nervous.

They did not just let you forget. If it had just been a simple incident, then maybe, but I was not just some random person. I was the sibling of a changeling and with that a human that definitely knew too much. I knew it was just a question of time until they would come for me, but I had never thought it would be this early. Who would have thought that I would ever come to question if I would graduate? Not because my grades were slipping, as was the normal reason to fear such an outcome, but because I just did not know if I would be alive that long. The thought scared me.

Sure, I had prepared for it. I had always known they would come and I had collected enough to fend them off for a while, but not for my entire life. And let’s be honest, I really did not want to die.

Thus, came my new, and by my family highly questioned, habit of sitting at my desk with a drawn iron dagger next to me. Close enough to grab it in an emergency. Which is exactly how he found me this evening: drawing some commissioned art piece while keeping a weapon close enough to switch my tablet pen for it in a matter of seconds. I did exactly that when I heard a noise on my balcony.

With the dagger pointed at the intruder I stood up from my desk, the music I had put on still playing in the background with a very unfittingly giddy song.

“There is nothing for you to gain in this household, _Aos Sídhe_. I have to ask you to leave,” I said, aware how rude it still sounded despite my try to make it sound polite. It was unwise to insult a faerie. Said faerie chuckled.

“Calm down,” he said and held his hands up in surrender. Only now did I notice that one of his hands was clutching a white bag which seemed to be filled with something. I suspiciously narrowed my eyes at it.

“I’m only here to right a mistake, that is all. Call it a favour if you want.”

“I’d rather not. Your kind’s favours always come with a price and I’m not willing to pay it.”

His golden eyes crinkled with amusement and suddenly it was like a curtain had been drawn from my mind. The memories from two nights ago came flooding back. I remembered catching him in my room when I returned from downstairs. He had tried to get a little beast that looked like a dragon away from my meal and I, being familiar with fey things as I was, had instantly counted two and two together and dove to my bed to get the iron dagger. When I had turned around, he had been gone though and soon after the memory of him had been gone too.

“You know a lot. That can get you killed.”

“I like to believe that knowledge is power. Maybe it will get me killed, maybe it won’t. We all have to die someday.”

For a moment, the faerie looked like he wanted to argue, but then he just sighed and shook his head.

I raised the dagger again when he took a step into my room, right over the line of salt I had made in front of my balcony door. Well, I already knew that it did not help against all faeries, but it had at least been worth a try. I wanted to tell him that he was not welcome here and that he should leave immediately, but I didn’t. He was a faerie and faeries did as they pleased. If he wanted to stay, then he would stay. I would just have to keep my guard up for the duration of his visit and then try to secure my room even better in case he decided to drop by again in the future.

He stopped a few steps away from me, keeping a polite distance but still being close enough that I would be able to stab him if I’d take a step forward. I expected him to jump forward, maybe even use that sword of his that was strapped to his back, but instead he just held out the hand that carried the bag. It took me a few seconds to realise that he meant me to take the bag, but I was not that stupid.

Faerie gifts were a lose-lose situation. If you did not accept them, you offended the faerie which could easily get you cursed or worse. If you accepted the gift, it would bind you to repay the favour and the faerie could ask for _anything_ then. And anything meant _anything_. Shortly put: you could not win.

“What is in the bag?” I asked to stall.

“Just some takeout food from the Greek restaurant around the corner.”

My eyebrows rose at that. Takeout food was probably the last thing I had expected. It made it much worse though. If there was something that was worse than accepting a faerie gift, then it was accepting faerie food. Maybe it was faerie food in disguise. Well, there was one easy way to find out.

“It was prepared there with human ingredients by human chefs and has nothing fey on it?” Faeries could not lie. If he would keep quiet, then the food was probably poisoned or hexed.

“Yes, it was. I did not know what you liked though, so I hope Spanakopita is alright?”

Alright then, real food it was. A faerie had just entered my room through the balcony and offered me Greek takeout food. What even was my life?!

“Why?” I asked, since that had bugged me ever since he had showed up.

“Because it would be a shame for it to go to waste?”

“No, _why_ are you breaking into my room and bringing me Greek food?”

“Oh,” he said and suddenly seemed shy, which was another thing I would have never thought a faerie to be capable of. “I just thought that since Cyn broke into your room and ate your dinner, that the least I could do was to repay you for that inconvenience? I know it’s not the same as what you had, but I heard the Greek place was pretty good, so I thought it would be alright.”

What. The. Actual. Hell!?

“So, let me get this straight: You broke into my room because your companion…pet…whatever ate my dinner and when I was about to attack you, you disappeared. And now you come back with takeout food because you want to repay me for the dinner you ruined? Okay, where is the catch?”

“No catch, I swear! Just righting a wrong.”

I raised my eyebrows. “Most _Aos Sídhe_ would rather laugh at my dinner being ruined and the last thing on their mind would be _fixing_ it.”

“Well, I’m not exactly an _Aos Sídhe_ , so that mindset does not really apply for me.”

“Are you solitary f—”

**_Don’t say “faerie”!_ ** **They _listen when you say that word._**

One had to keep in mind that I was a researcher of faeries and my only connection to them at all was my brother Hayden. He knew about as much as I did and therefore could only rarely surprise me with anything. I had never encountered faeries except him and I was familiar with the theoretical, not the practical. Therefore, it was an understandable reaction to jump back and get ready to stab the black-haired weirdo in front of me when I suddenly heard his voice in my head. Regardless of what he said, I would have shut up anyway at _that_.

“Sorry, I shouldn’t say the word either.”

“What are you?” The question was out before I could stop it. He could not say the word “faerie”, he could walk over salt, he looked very human yet was no _Aos Sídhe_. The question was justified.

“Cursed.” It was a single word, delivered with sad smile and a voice that made clear that he had accepted this fact long ago already. I almost felt sorry for him.

“Wait, does that mean you are human? Did you make a bargain to use magic?”

“Why don’t we talk over some Spanakopita and I’ll tell you a little bit about it?”

“How can I trust you?”

“Giving me a chance to explain myself would be a good start. And…err…could you maybe put away that dagger? Iron or not, I’d prefer not to be stabbed tonight.”

“The dagger stays, but I promise you not to stab you as long as you give me no reason to.”

He sighed. “Fair enough, I guess.”

We awkwardly sat down on my floor, the box with Spanakopita between us. I had to admit that they were actually very good and I might go to said Greek restaurant with Lotta when the opportunity arose.

“Let’s start easy: Why would you voluntarily give me information without getting anything in return for it?”

He smirked. “Because you will forget this whole conversation anyway. At least as long as I am not around.”

“Creepy much?”

“It’s safer that way. The less you know, the better for everyone involved.”

“That includes you I guess? So, tell me, what would someone like you have to fear from the fair folk?”

“The same as you I guess. Humans with fey qualities are not particularly popular among them and they would rather like to get rid of us.”

“So, you _are_ human?”

“Yes and no. I’m neither human nor one of the fair folk, but something in between. It’s quite bothersome.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” I said, knowing pretty well what he probably had to deal with. Hayden, as a changeling, might be a faerie, but he was raised by humans and wanted to be human which also made him be something in between both worlds.

“It’s alright,” he said and I knew it was a lie.

“I know names are a touchy subject, but could you still tell me yours?”

He hesitated for a bit. “Phoenix. You can call me Phoenix.” His hesitation melted away to make room for a mischievous grin. “And what about you? Can you give me your name?”

I couldn’t help but laugh at that question. As if I would fall for it!

“Nice try.”

He chuckled. “Well, it was worth a shot. I will just have to call you _Sunshine_ then.”

I tried very hard not to blush.


	4. Will that be all?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Maddy's point of view.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love Maddy with all my heart, she's my favourite character ~~thus she suffers the most~~.

There were a lot of things Paris had taught me and I was sure there were also a lot of things this town in the middle of England could teach me. In the big city you had to be careful of your every step to not accidentally walk into the bad parts of town, but you also had to have the courage to dare something from time to time. I had learned the hard way that daring something might be healthy to get the craving for adventure satisfied and to get stories to tell, but it could also be dangerous. Just how dangerous it could be had become clear to me when I had died in that dirty alley all those years ago.

Naïve little Maddy was gone. She died three years ago in that Parisian alley. A young teenager on the quest to become an adult which she had tackled with an unhealthy amount of recklessness. I had had to pay for that recklessness with a dead best friend and my own human body. Keeping my life only for the price of belonging everywhere yet nowhere.

It had not erased the memories of that day and the trauma had shook me to my core. Even now, years later, I woke up from nightmares, reliving that horrible night over and over. If this torture was part of the curse or just a regular torture my mind subjected me to was unclear.

What had shaken me just as much as the memories, had been the loss of my voice. Well, it had not exactly been a loss but rather a gain of a new ability. An ability I despised. Others might have found a liking in a voice that lured people closer, made them obey to your every wish and made them love you. Old me would have adored it, but after what I have unwillingly sacrificed to gain it, the only thing I yearned for was something _real_. After all, singing was my life. It had always been my life and it was my dream. To have it twisted like this had been a cruelty by the universe I had never forgiven. A siren voice to one whose only comfort was to sing.

There had also been good things happening in the last three years though. I have met a new best friend. One, who I could be sure was real and not just some person enchanted by my voice. How I could be sure? Well, he was deaf. With my self-enforced muteness and his deafness, we had both become outsiders. He taught me sign language and I practiced speaking with him.

He had also been the first one to find out about my _otherness_. As the observant person he was, he had realised pretty quickly that something odd happened whenever I talked to others. An oddness that went beyond what was common.

It had taken a while, but we had eventually decided to test out my special abilities in a safe setting and stabilize them so I could live a normal life again. What we discovered, however, had gone far beyond just charming people with my voice.

Now, I was fast, swift and I even could fly. I distracted people with my singing and I could make the quietest of escapes. Becoming a thief had not been something I had ever seen myself doing, but like everything else in my life, it had just happened. A “just this once” had turned into “just one more” until I had grown sick of finding excuses. It had become the norm, even though I was not particularly proud of it.

New town, new rules though. I had to accept that things were different now, but you know what they say, old habits die hard. To be sneaking around such a quiet place with the most horrible crime being the occasional robbery, there was not much to do. Paris had always been buzzing with opportunities, while in this place I had to take what I could get.

Even I had to admit that going for the wallet of some rich bastard was beneath me. He may have had deserved it but the usual thrill that went with my usual nightly escapades.

No priceless jewel was snatched right from under the surveillance of a group of thieves who had stolen it themselves. It also was no busted drug deal or a person saved from murder. It was just a petty act of thievery which I really was not proud of. I almost considered giving the damn wallet back when there was a noise behind me. A noise too silent to be just a random person.

I kept my cool, knowing my glamour and the costume I additionally wore would protect me to be identified. Even I could not do much against a gun being pointed at me, or a knife being held at my neck, so swiftly drew my own knives—they were meant for throwing, one between each finger—and whirled around to whoever had dared to sneak up on me.

It was not a familiar face, but yet there was something I recognized. A feeling. A hunch. Something _fey_. At least he seemed male, so this would hopefully be easy. Unless he was gay. Well, it was still worth a shot to play my charms now that I could control them!

“Don’t you know it is rude to take things that don’t belong to you?” he asked and held his hand out, as if expecting me to drop the stolen wallet into it and call it a night. Clearly, _he_ was the naïve one out of the two of us, which could give me the upper hand.

“It is also not polite to hit women and only offer them a salary they can actually live from when they endure sexual harassment,” I said with a shrug, not taking my eyes off him. I would not use my siren voice. Not yet. Maybe I could convince him with normal means to let me go.

“Stealing is a sin, yada yada yada, but I’m not religious and the bastard I stole this from obviously isn’t either. It’s by far not what he deserves, but it’s a start,” I continued.

“So, you plan to kill him?” His voice was scarily calm. So far, I had only killed in self-defence and that had been over a year ago and only twice. So, no, I did not plan to kill him. Whatever would lead him to such an assumption?

“I don’t like getting my hands dirty if I can prevent it,” I replied as calmly as possible. This guy unnerved me, maybe I should just charm him and be done with it. I could go home then and use the money to pay for food for a homeless shelter or something similar.

“This is quite _human_ of you.”

A suspicious phrasing.

“Will that be all?” I asked, fake annoyance and nonchalance tugging at my tone. In reality I was just unnerved and wound up like a spring, ready to leap to safety at a moment’s notice.

The clear answer was ‘no’, but it was not given verbally. Instead, he drew a _sword_ — _why_ did always _I_ get the weirdos?! I sprinted away as fast as I could, taking big leaps, bigger than I usually would because they tended to attract attention. At this point I did not care anymore. Some lunatic with a sword was after me and the last thing I had in mind there was subtlety. At least the years in Paris had taught me how to lose someone when they were chasing me.

When I arrived home after half an hour of running around the entire town, the damned wallet still in my bag, I swore to myself to not go out and play Robin Hood again until I had not gathered more intel on _creepy sword guy_.

The few things he had said and the fact that he had drawn a sword at least let me conclude one thing with absolute certainty: He either was human and _knew_ or he was one of _them_. After all, what were the chances that he was neither and both? Someone like me? Zero, I would say. Because as far as I was concerned, only I was that unfortunate.


	5. Take what you need

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Preciosa's point of view

Meran was a nice city if you liked small towns in the north of Italy. I personally appreciated the cafés and the view of the river Passer. The elegant designs of the street lamps combined with the white benches in between the trees on the side of the river made for a nice place to stop and sit down for a bit.

While my parents would be furious to find out how far away from Milan I was, this little day trip had still been necessary. Three hours of a car journey later and I was enjoying a well-deserved breath of fresh air and the soothing sound of the water. I did not expect anyone to recognize me, sunglasses or not since there were a lot of models in this world and while famous, I was still just one of many.

“How is it going _sorella gemella_?” Well, at least _one_ person seemed to recognize me. At least there was no doubt to his identity and his presence was a welcome one. He was the reason I had travelled up here in the first place.

“Stressful but I won’t complain,” I replied without taking my view off the rushing water below. He sat down on the bench next to me, leaning his head on my shoulder.

“Won’t or can’t? Go ahead and vent if you want, I won’t tell anyone,” he offered and I both heard and felt his grin. It drew a smile out of me too.

“Maybe another time _il fratellino_. You’re here because of something else.”

“Doesn’t mean I can’t be a good brother.”

I let out a laugh and shook my head.

“You don’t ever change, do you?”

“More than I’d like to, but that’s not what I was getting at. I really hate to ask, you know that, but…I need a favour.”

“You know, when it would be some other rich family and I’d hear that the daughter’s brother only ever comes to see her when he needs a favour, I would say he’s exploiting her,” I said. Had he been anyone else or had I been anyone else, he would have defended himself and denied it, but my brother was my brother, so he just sat there and chuckled.

“Well, yeah. Seems like you got me after all.”

“I have always been the smarter one of us two.”

“Which is unfair, since one would think that twins each get an equal share.”

“You’re smart enough on your own accord. I’m just better.” I had missed the friendly teasing. Sarcastic comments and jabs being thrown back and forth in a loving way only siblings could. It felt like I was complete again after a long while of only existing as a half. What some people said about twins being two parts of a whole seemed true to us, which made the forced separation even worse.

“Anyway, whatever you want can surely also be discussed in a café. I just drove three hours and look forward to a sundae. I saw a nice little café with a view of the fields and mountains just at the other side of the river, so come on,” I said and stood up without another word. When he started walking beside me, I hooked my arm with his and threw him a knowing grin.

“ _So_ , I have been hearing rumours and now I’m curious if they are true.”

“If by ‘rumours’ you mean things Rylon told you, then don’t believe a word of it.”

“It is still the first time I have ever heard even remotely something along the lines of ‘Draco found a girlfriend’.” When he blushed, I knew that there had to be at least _some_ fragment of truth at it.

“I…uh…she’s not my _girlfriend_ ,” Draco stammered and I could only hardly hold back a mischievous snicker. Teasing my brother was _way_ more fun than strategically predicting the outcomes of social events.

“Let’s say that’s true, then what is it that makes her different from the other girls you never even glanced at?”

He sighed. “First off, she knows things she should not know and she also meddles in things that are not her business.”

“Interesting,” I said as I got the meaning behind what he was saying. So, this girl, whoever she was, knew about faeries and interfered with strictly non-human things. Daring. I had to commend her on it; to do what I could not do.

“She sounds like quite the catch. What’s the holdup?” I asked further as we crossed the bridge, which curiously seemed to be half in construction.

“First off, she hates me,” Draco said and I could not hold back the snort.

“Fair point. I like her already.”

Draco just rolled his eyes. “Secondly, she thinks of me as two separate people and can’t even remember half of our interactions most of the time.”

Well, my brother was still a hopeless idiot. Despite what he might say, he really had not changed much over the years. What he had said translated itself to me as: “I keep talking to her as ‘Phoenix’ and of course she can’t remember that, but she hates ‘Draco’.”

“Well, no offence, but that sounds reckless.”

“I never said it was an easy situation to be in. On the one hand I have to do what I have to do, but on the other hand I have to keep her out of harm’s way because she’s about to get herself killed one of these days.”

“So, you have a thing for the stubborn yet brave ones. Gotta remember that for the next time I plan to play matchmaker.”

Draco groaned. “Please not you too! Rylon is already on the case and he has even gotten himself some enthusiastic help. It would be nice to have someone who is on _my_ side for a change.”

“It’s my meaning of life to tease you, you know that,” I said with a shrug as we neared an empty table at the café and I sat down. Draco followed suit and pushed the menu over to me.

“You don’t want anything?” I asked, knowing that his journey here had been much longer and much more stressful than mine. If anyone deserved some sweet treat, then it was him.

“I’ll order you a Latte Macchiato if you don’t choose for yourself,” I warned him while I went through the selection of sundaes.

“Sure, do that,” he said as he glanced into the distance. His mood had shifted suddenly and I knew better than to disturb him while he was like this.

We spent some time in a comfortable silence until a waitress came over to us, asking in German for our order. I replied in Italian, ordering a pistachio hazelnut sundae and, as threatened, a Latte Macchiato for my brother.

“You do know that you can get cancer from pistachio nuts, right?” Draco asked and I just rolled my eyes.

“Eating them once a year or so won’t kill me,” I replied, being used him worrying about my frail mortal body. There had been a time where we have been the same, but that was almost ten years ago when we had still been kids. Ever since he had found out about the curse and knew that the same would happen to me if my life would meet a sudden end, he had become frantic about preventing it. Under no circumstances would he let me go through the suffering he had endured. It would have been sweet if it had not become repetitive and even a little annoying over the years. It had ranged from things like ‘please don’t go skydiving or freeclimbing’ to now ‘don’t eat pistachio nuts’.

“Anyway, we are seated and I guess we both have to go back to Milan and the UK respectively soon, so better say what you came here for now before we run out of time.”

“This might sound stupid, but…I need a car.”

I had not expected that.

“You’re right, it _does_ sound stupid. With how often you move it would really be a hassle, wouldn’t it? Except you’re now telling me that you intend to stay in England for longer than a year.”

“You know I can’t promise anything like that, but I’m planning to, yes.”

“Okay then.”

“Okay? Just like that?” Draco asked. He apparently had thought that it would have taken some more convincing to get me to agree.

“I said it to you years ago and I’m saying it again: Take what you need.” It had been something we had agreed on when he had first needed to move away. Moving was expensive and so was living in general. I had been more than willing to help him out with a little money. What he needed to live and function was honestly not more in the drop in the fortune of our family. It would not even be missed. Draco could just take whatever he needed and I would make sure that it would not be noticed. This was our deal and it had worked very well so far.

“It has to be a black and inconspicuous car though. I don’t want to draw a lot of attention,” Draco said, knowing better than to further question my motives.

“Consider it done,” I said just as the waitress with his coffee and my sundae arrived.

“Alright, so you have grilled me about Sunny, so it’s only fair that I return the favour,” Draco said as a poured a small package of sugar into his beverage.

“Her name is Sunny, huh?” I just replied with a smug grin while spooning some pistachio ice cream. Seeing Draco freeze for a moment when he realised what he had let slip was amusing to watch. He quickly regained his composure and threw me a grin back.

“So, tell me, when Rylon is so generous about giving you information about me, I wonder what else you two are talking about.” I let no emotion slip over my face but internally I panicked just a little.

“That is none of your business,” I, therefore, said, buying time to collect myself and think of something appropriate to say. Draco chuckled and I did not like the grin on his face. It was what I had dubbed his faerie-grin since it gave me an eerie and uneasy feeling.

“Really? Because just last week he said something about his girlfriend being an Italian model.”

I almost spit out my ice cream. The shock must have been written on my face for a moment though because my brother’s grin just grew. My uncaring façade slipped on a second later though and I cleared my throat.

“Tell him that I am very capable of committing a murder where one would ever find his body.”


	6. I heard enough, this ends now

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jason's point of view.

A lot of things could be said about me, but _unreliable_ was not one of them. I exited the club and walked down the street that was empty at three in the morning. Others might have found it unsettling, but I was prepared for unexpected assaults and muggings. If some poor bastard was unlucky enough to pick me as their next victim, then it was probable that they would regret life.

I was as at home at night as I was at day, but the darkness came with a certain thrill daylight never had. You could hide more easily but so could others. Would something happen this time or would things stay peaceful?

After almost a week of gathering information I now finally had enough to present to my partner who would take care of the job. The last thing I needed was some idiot jumping in my way and demanding my wallet.

To my relief, it stayed peaceful.

When I arrived at the car, I climbed into the passenger seat without question.

“I’m not gonna offer help tonight. It’s almost an insult to your skills with how easy this one will be,” I said and accepted the still warm—well, probably warmed up—Starbucks cup. A coffee was just what I needed now.

“Great, so tell me why it is so easy,” Jeweline said while impatiently tapping her fingers on the steering wheel. She was already in her ‘murder-outfit’, as Mel dubbed it—all black with a gazillion subtle pockets that held weapons.

I had made it a habit of not telling Jeweline more than the description whenever the two of us accepted a job after she had run off on the second day of our very first one and managed to fatally fail. She was good at what she did by now, there was no doubt, but impatience was one of her flaws which I did not dare risk. Whenever I gathered information I therefore held out on her until I had collected enough and just told her the whole story when she was about to become active.

I was just an informant, not an assassin like her. I scouted the turf, she killed the target, that’s how it went.

“They did not build the lake house by coincidence. One of them, who is long dead, has discovered that there is a kelpie living in the lake and the others have seen it as an opportunity to get rid of unwanted contenders in their craft. They think they _control_ the kelpie though, which is why this is easy.”

“So, just push all of them into the lake, draw the kelpie out with it and kill the kelpie?” Jeweline summarized with a raised eyebrow.

“Should not be more than that. I have not heard of any fair folk customers and there certainly are just humans in the organisation itself. Sorry Jew, no killing of human-disguised fair folk today, just a carnivorous water horse.”

Jeweline sighed. “What a waste of my time. We should have taken the girls along. That would have been fun.”

“Yeah, because showing two fourteen-year-olds how it looks like to have a group of people killed by a kelpie is definitely a good idea and won’t traumatize either of them,” I deadpanned. The years on the job had made my partner—and ex-girlfriend—desensitized when it came to murder. Then again, she had grown up learning how to kill, while Arisa, Mel and I grew up learning how to speak several languages, trick people into volunteering information and how to cast glamours even fair folk would fall for.

“Anyway, they were planning to throw a child into the lake tomorrow and—”

“I heard enough, this ends now. These bastards are going to regret having dabbled in fey things.”

 _That_ , I was sure of.

“Good luck, Jew,” I said and gave her a kiss on the cheek. We might not be a couple anymore but the habit of cheek kisses had never died down with us. Probably because we had already done it for a while before we had started dating all these years ago. Back then I had had to practise French customs, to make them come natural to me when I needed them. Among others, there had been la bise, the kisses on the cheeks and I had just started greeting all my friends like that for fun. Jeweline had been the only one of them it had stuck with and before we had known it, it had become our normal.

“Yeah, yeah. Don’t drive off with the car, this shouldn’t take long,” Jeweline said and swiftly swung herself out of the seat, out into the night. When the door was slammed shut, I was left with my coffee and about half an hour of time to kill. The bad thing about it being 3 AM was there was a huge lack of things to do.

We had both left our phones at the hotel room in order to not leave any tracks, so even if I had wanted to, I could not watch cat videos on YouTube. Despite my job being done, I also could not just take a nap either. I needed to stay attentive and watch out for trouble, which also eliminated the option of listening to music.

This is how I came to spend about forty-five minutes with my thoughts drifting to different topics. Arisa and Mel being one of the more prominent ones, since thinking of them always both cheered me up and frustrated me at the same time.

Neither of the two were blood-relatives to me or each other, but they were still both my little sisters. Arisa was the daughter of my tutor and Mel had already been Arisa’s best friend back when I started getting classes. I had literally grown up with them and more so, they had grown up with each other ever since they were one year old.

Ten-year-old me had never thought himself to be capable to take care of a two-year-old kid, but it had been one of the first tasks Silas had given me. Now, babysitting a two-year-old was one thing, babysitting a _mute_ two-year-old was another. She had not been able to sign at that age yet and I had not been good enough to read minds yet to understand what she wanted, but we had gotten along. Throw Mel into this equation and the whole system dissolved into chaos.

While Arisa was mute, Mel was _not_. It almost seemed like she was determined to speak enough for both of them and weight out Arisa’s calculating, cautious attitude by being destructive and direct. A lot of people therefore mistook her for being reckless and irresponsible, but they could actually not be further from the truth.

Mel was the most intelligent and witty kid I had ever had the pleasure of meeting. She might not seem like it, but she could, in a few years of time, probably outsmart Jeweline and me both. She also was able to balance out Arisa and never make her feel out of place. The two of them had developed a level of communication that was beyond even me, reacting to the smallest shifts and signs. They did not need to read each other’s thought to know what the other was thinking and only very rarely did Arisa need to sign something to Mel.

With both of them in the middle of training right now I of course started to worry. It would not be long before they would get their first jobs, which they would do under supervision. Easy small stuff not worth mentioning for someone of Jeweline’s or my level, but still a big step for the two of them.

It was not that I was scared of them failing—I was pretty sure they would pass with flying colours—but rather that they would leave the nest too early. Trained they may be, but at the end of the day they were still teenagers who deserved to live their teenage life to the fullest before being thrown at jobs that involved death. I wanted to keep them away from this world for as long as I could, no matter how much they _theoretically_  know about it already and how prepared they _theoretically_ were. The real deal was a whole lot different from the classes after all, no one knew that better than someone like me who had been through it.

The sound of the trunk opening and something being dropped in there pulled me out of my thoughts. Shortly after, Jeweline got back into the driver seat, her black outfit full of splashes of blood, as well as a few of them on her face.

“I look pretty, I know,” she said with a grin and pulled off her, also bloodstained, gloves.

“Did you just dump a kelpie head in the trunk?” I asked, knowing fully well that this had not been part of the job objective.

“What? Kelpie teeth sell good,” Jeweline just replied as she regarded her reflexion in the rear-view mirror and wiped off some blood from her face.

“Mel asked you for it, didn’t she?” I sighed.

“Yeah, and that. Something about experimenting with kelpie skin. I’m not the one cutting her off of it though.”

“Why do you cater to her insane ideas in the first place?” I asked with an exasperated groan. Then she threw me a grin that reminded me why I had started dating her in the first place. It made her eyes spark with something dangerous and mischievous, just like the fae.

“Because it’s fun!”


End file.
